Peel Ports secures new WEC Lines service to Liverpool

Peel Ports Group Container Director, Jouke Schaap.

Dutch company WEC Lines is beginning a new service connecting the Port of Liverpool with Huelva, Vigo, Leixoes and Dublin. The service will begin from the end of September with weekly 300TEU vessels, but this is expected to grow significantly once trade develops.

Jouke Schaap, Container Port Director at Peel Ports, said: “We’re very pleased to be welcoming a second WEC Lines service to Liverpool. This further underlines what we’ve been saying about how the dynamics of the UK logistics sector is changing. Shipping directly into the North-west of the UK provides cargo owners with the chance to reduce costs, congestion and carbon emissions by getting closer to their end market. It’s a further endorsement of the compelling case behind our Cargo200 initiative, which is now backed by 225 supporters representing more than 1.5m TEU a year. That is clear evidence of the demand for direct deep-sea calls at Liverpool.”

Nico Valkenier, Managing Director WEC Lines, added: “We are delighted to announce a new maritime link connecting both Huelva in the south of Spain and Vigo in the north of Spain with Liverpool and Dublin. In addition, this new service will improve connection times from Leixoes to Liverpool and Dublin.”

In 2016, WEC Lines began weekly calls at the Port of Liverpool connecting with Lisbon, Setubal, Leixoes and Sines, with other links to Ireland, Scotland, Morocco, Spain and the Canary Islands.

The Cargo200 campaign calls for importers and exporters whose goods begin or end their journey in the north of the UK to switch current delivery of ocean freight from south-east ports to the centrally-located Port of Liverpool. The initiative aims to cut freight mileage by 200 million miles by 2020.